- 43
- The Backseat
- DanishGambit
Hi all. I'm new to the forums and new to GT5 as far as driving with all the aids off. The game is more enjoyable this way as you can actually feel what the car is doing. However from a beginner's perspective there are a lot of issues in the game that make it very difficult to progress. In fact I've found myself doing seasonal events instead of actually finishing the single player - and I haven't even finished the Amateur Races. I have a list of issues that I hope would be fixed in GT6 and hopefully other members can shed light on some things.
License Tests
These are said to be the first place (second for me...
) that a beginner should go in the game. Here you learn about breaking points, steering the car, the driving line, throttle control and a bunch of other things that you will need. However the first issue comes at the very beginning of test B1. This test, like most of the tests in B1, feature a standing start. Unfortunately the game neglects to mention the very simple idea of how to accelerate off of the starting line. There are some tests, such as the A3 cone slalom, in which a good start can go a long way into increasing lap times. It is easy to notice this as you see your ghost car zoom past you even though you've only been going in a straight line! Even though the majority of races in the game feature rolling starts I think this important point should have been mentioned.
Another issue I had was accelerating with high-powered cars. I have not finished all of the tests but hopefully there is a section that covers using throttle control on cars like these. All the tests use skid control force for some reason but tire spinning is a problem at low gears and this doesn't seem well covered.
A third problem is that the tests sometimes seem to require the student to perform maneuvers that are never actually taught. This comes up as early as the B5 test at Tsukuba. I took a very long time trying to figure it out thinking that my technique was bad. I finally decided to search for answers. It was then that I read people calling this test "one of the hardest in the entire game." That is NOT what a beginning player needs to hear at all. Now although this is an exaggeration it's easy to see where someone might get this idea.
Normal driving will not cut it on this test. I found that you are actually supposed to brake later than the guy in the demonstration brakes. That is just not something that a student is going to do unless he wants to end up sliding into a wall. There were even suggestions of using the handbrake which doesn't even exist to a beginner. The point is that it shouldn't require an expert technique to finish a beginner's test. And if I can't trust the instructor then who can I trust? Obi-Wan? (Don't use the skid force Luke...)
Other than these points the driving tests have been extremely useful in learning to drive. The instructions are clear and the demonstration with the instructor explaining the exercises are very helpful. It is nice to be able to sit in the car and see what you are supposed to do rather than simply follow the driving line.
HP, PP Why Me?
Simply put the idea has somewhat confused me. The issue started in A-Spec when the main problem was finding a car to compete with in races. After comparing the PP and finding a car to match I often found myself in a car that was either too fast, turning the race into a hot lap, or it was too slow turning the race into a hot lap. The issue is worse online as I have found myself slower in almost every race. And comparing these values can be deceiving. Although two cars may have the same PP one car may be significantly better than the other. So what is the defining factor? Who knows - it's never really explained in the game. One thing is for sure - cool stickers don't make a car fast - unless it's a Red Bull sticker.
So A-Spec has really been trial and error and although I don't like being significantly faster (or slower), I'm not just going to buy and sell cars over and over again until I find the right one especially if it's for one race and with a car that I may only use one time. The Lupo races don't seem so bad at all to me! This is probably the most frustrating thing about the game. This seems to be a very important factor in buying and tuning cars and it's not explained at all. I would propose that races have HP and PP restrictions to help prevent this issue. Granted it might make finding the cars a bit harder, but all of the cars would at least be in the same class. Then the winner is decided by tuning, driving skill e.t.c; Winning all the races in high-powered cars has the side effect of making up for bad habits and they do show up when the cars are evenly powered.
Tuning - Care to Elaborate?
Here is another point where the beginner gets the cold shoulder. In fact I don't think the option is even explained other than in the manual. While everything in the tuning shop has a great explanation at least, it's really not that helpful as far as knowing when these tools will actually be used or how one tune affects another part of the car. Everyone is simply not going to notice that loss of grip if the ride height goes to low and the springs rate settings are simply intimidating with the ability to tune them to one tenths of a millimeter. I would simply propose license tests in which you are supposed to tune a stock car so that it can behave in a way that allows you to take turns at a certain speed. This way the player can be guided through the controls to see how the different settings effect the car and be better able to make custom tunes for themselves.
Drifting
I don't know if this is given license tests or not but I haven't seen anything about how to drift a car on tarmac or dirt/snow. I remember them being in GT3 though and they were very good. It seems pretty easy to make some tests on the Eifel kart track or special stage 5 since they have very circular turns.
tldr;
These are the few issues I had with the game. The main problem in my view is not that the game is too hard. It's a simulator and so that's to be expected. The real issue seems to be that a lot of things get left out that beginners simply need to know. Most people that complain about the game being too hard aren't doing the license tests. And they aren't doing the license tests because even they can be too hard. The ones I've done are pretty straight forward but sometimes you are called to do something that is simply not explained and someone that is not a veteran driver is not going to just figure it out. So they skip the license tests and get into their uber high powered cars and wipe out A-spec until they get to the point where the cars are too powerful to dive recklessly. At this point a player has plateaued and probably won't figure out what's wrong. I think this is the point where many players stop playing. I think a bit more explanation of how things work would be a lot more effective than changing regulations and assists.
After getting past those things the game is a lot of fun. The time spent in doing the license tests pays off as you can actually use the things you learned in all of the races. And even though you can do ok skipping them I think that the game is better when you have done them because it's easier to learn about how the different cars will react to the corners in the game. I have only golded the B licenses so far but I think I'll try to gold them all.
License Tests
These are said to be the first place (second for me...
Another issue I had was accelerating with high-powered cars. I have not finished all of the tests but hopefully there is a section that covers using throttle control on cars like these. All the tests use skid control force for some reason but tire spinning is a problem at low gears and this doesn't seem well covered.
A third problem is that the tests sometimes seem to require the student to perform maneuvers that are never actually taught. This comes up as early as the B5 test at Tsukuba. I took a very long time trying to figure it out thinking that my technique was bad. I finally decided to search for answers. It was then that I read people calling this test "one of the hardest in the entire game." That is NOT what a beginning player needs to hear at all. Now although this is an exaggeration it's easy to see where someone might get this idea.
Normal driving will not cut it on this test. I found that you are actually supposed to brake later than the guy in the demonstration brakes. That is just not something that a student is going to do unless he wants to end up sliding into a wall. There were even suggestions of using the handbrake which doesn't even exist to a beginner. The point is that it shouldn't require an expert technique to finish a beginner's test. And if I can't trust the instructor then who can I trust? Obi-Wan? (Don't use the skid force Luke...)
Other than these points the driving tests have been extremely useful in learning to drive. The instructions are clear and the demonstration with the instructor explaining the exercises are very helpful. It is nice to be able to sit in the car and see what you are supposed to do rather than simply follow the driving line.
HP, PP Why Me?
Simply put the idea has somewhat confused me. The issue started in A-Spec when the main problem was finding a car to compete with in races. After comparing the PP and finding a car to match I often found myself in a car that was either too fast, turning the race into a hot lap, or it was too slow turning the race into a hot lap. The issue is worse online as I have found myself slower in almost every race. And comparing these values can be deceiving. Although two cars may have the same PP one car may be significantly better than the other. So what is the defining factor? Who knows - it's never really explained in the game. One thing is for sure - cool stickers don't make a car fast - unless it's a Red Bull sticker.
So A-Spec has really been trial and error and although I don't like being significantly faster (or slower), I'm not just going to buy and sell cars over and over again until I find the right one especially if it's for one race and with a car that I may only use one time. The Lupo races don't seem so bad at all to me! This is probably the most frustrating thing about the game. This seems to be a very important factor in buying and tuning cars and it's not explained at all. I would propose that races have HP and PP restrictions to help prevent this issue. Granted it might make finding the cars a bit harder, but all of the cars would at least be in the same class. Then the winner is decided by tuning, driving skill e.t.c; Winning all the races in high-powered cars has the side effect of making up for bad habits and they do show up when the cars are evenly powered.
Tuning - Care to Elaborate?
Here is another point where the beginner gets the cold shoulder. In fact I don't think the option is even explained other than in the manual. While everything in the tuning shop has a great explanation at least, it's really not that helpful as far as knowing when these tools will actually be used or how one tune affects another part of the car. Everyone is simply not going to notice that loss of grip if the ride height goes to low and the springs rate settings are simply intimidating with the ability to tune them to one tenths of a millimeter. I would simply propose license tests in which you are supposed to tune a stock car so that it can behave in a way that allows you to take turns at a certain speed. This way the player can be guided through the controls to see how the different settings effect the car and be better able to make custom tunes for themselves.
Drifting
I don't know if this is given license tests or not but I haven't seen anything about how to drift a car on tarmac or dirt/snow. I remember them being in GT3 though and they were very good. It seems pretty easy to make some tests on the Eifel kart track or special stage 5 since they have very circular turns.
tldr;
These are the few issues I had with the game. The main problem in my view is not that the game is too hard. It's a simulator and so that's to be expected. The real issue seems to be that a lot of things get left out that beginners simply need to know. Most people that complain about the game being too hard aren't doing the license tests. And they aren't doing the license tests because even they can be too hard. The ones I've done are pretty straight forward but sometimes you are called to do something that is simply not explained and someone that is not a veteran driver is not going to just figure it out. So they skip the license tests and get into their uber high powered cars and wipe out A-spec until they get to the point where the cars are too powerful to dive recklessly. At this point a player has plateaued and probably won't figure out what's wrong. I think this is the point where many players stop playing. I think a bit more explanation of how things work would be a lot more effective than changing regulations and assists.
After getting past those things the game is a lot of fun. The time spent in doing the license tests pays off as you can actually use the things you learned in all of the races. And even though you can do ok skipping them I think that the game is better when you have done them because it's easier to learn about how the different cars will react to the corners in the game. I have only golded the B licenses so far but I think I'll try to gold them all.